Apparently Arkansas has a little bit in its state constitution that bars atheists from serving in elected office. This is funny because the US Constitution has a not-so-little-bit in it about not being able to bar atheists form serving in elected office. This normally wouldn't be a big deal since every state has outdated laws that are never enforced, plus not a lot of people would want to run for office/live in Arkansas. Apparently however, recent attempts to change the constitution, and make it compatible with things like liberal democracy, freedom, the 18th century, modern western thought, have well...failed:
In 2005, state Rep. Buddy Blair filed a resolution to affirm Arkansas' support for the separation of church and state. The resolution lost 39-44 in the House.
Luckily for the residents of Arkansas, the state still recognizes the importance of the second amendment:
Meanwhile, in a related story, the Arkansas House passed a bill Wednesday allowing people to bring their guns to church.
"Due to many shootings that have happened in our churches across our nation, it is time we changed our concealed handgun law to allow law-abiding citizens of the state of Arkansas the right to defend themselves and others should a situation happen in one of our churches," said state Rep. Beverly Pyle.
I could make some distasteful comment about how if your getting shot while praying, you probably weren't praying correctly, or to the right God, but that's not really the issue here.
I'm actually for this new law. I'm no theologian, but I'm pretty sure this was the type of thing Jesus would have supported. Sure he never mention guns in the Bible, but that's just because there were no guns back then. If you believe in a living Constitution (and I'm sure they don't in Arkansas), you should believe in a living Bible too. Forget that whole turning the other cheek part, just think how much better things would have been if they had guns back in the day. Do you think the Romans would have screwed with Jesus if the Apostles were packing heat? Probably not! Oh sure, this would be counter to the values of the Bible, and the story of Christianity, but if the Arkansas legislature doesn't mind ignoring the Constitution, we shouldn't really be surprised.
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